With the festive season upon us we can often indulge in our favourite foods with little or no care for our personal nutrition. In today’s 101, Ruth Foerg, a second-year bachelor of culinary arts student at Otago Polytechnic, shows us how to make a green smoothie bowl.
Packed with superfoods and nutritious with fruit and vegetables, Foerg's green smoothie bowl is just the tonic at this time of the year.
The granola can be made in advance and the avocado and banana frozen in chunks in the freezer, meaning this morning boost is effortless to prepare.
Photos from Otago Polytechnic.
Green smoothie bowl
Makes 1 portion
Ingredients
1 frozen banana
1 small bunch spinach
2 leaves fresh kale
½ frozen avocado
160ml of almond milk
granola (see recipe below)
To serve
sliced bananas
maple syrup
coconut yoghurt
sprinkle of chia seeds
raspberries
Granola
65g wholegrain oats
10g walnuts
25g pumpkin seeds
25ml maple syrup
drop of vanilla essence
pinch of cinnamon
50ml coconut oil
15g dried cranberries
20g shredded coconut
Freeze bananas and avocado in advance.
Blend frozen banana, spinach, kale, frozen avocado and almond milk in a blender.
Preheat the oven to 180degC.
Chop walnuts into small chunks and put in a big bowl.
Add oats, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, liquid coconut oil (melt in a pot on the stove), maple syrup and vanilla essence and mix well.
Place the mixture on a tray lined with baking paper and cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown (keep an eye on it and stir halfway through cooking).
Remove from the oven and let the granola cool.
Chop dried cranberries into small chunks and combine with shredded coconut. Mix with granola.
There should be enough granola for eight smoothies.
Pour smoothie in a wide bowl and add toppings.
Put granola in the middle of the bowl with sliced bananas on top. Drizzle maple syrup and coconut yoghurt around the outer bowl.
Finish with a sprinkle of chia seeds and raspberries over the granola.
Tip: The granola can be used as muesli and can be stored in a container for about two weeks.
If you would like to request a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know.
Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
